Melbourne

Last week youngest son and I travelled to Melbourne to watch his eldest brother compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. Unfortunately Hugo injured his knee on the fourth apparatus during the first competition and was pulled out. His team won gold on the day and thankfully he could join them on the podium, crutches and all!



He had an MRI the next day which showed that his ACL was torn. Bad news, as this means he will need surgical reconstruction followed by 9-12 months of recovery. He's taken it in his stride however, and has signed up for a judging course, so he can still go with his clubmates to the State Club Championships at the end of June, and judge instead of compete. He also hopes to do some coaching this year. The brilliant photo below was taken by one of the photographers of WinkiPop Media minutes before his injury, high-fiving his coach after a succesfull rings routine:



Hugo's injury understandably put a damper on our stay in Melbourne, but Robert and I did get to do some sightseeing and met our Dutch friends for dinner, which was lovely. It was Robert's first time in Melbourne and he loved seeing the autum colours - something we don't have here in Queensland! (more Melbourne pics on my photo blog here)



I took him to Hosier Lane to see the street art, but he wasn't very impressed - he called it Stinky Street!



We did like this painting (more street art photos on the photo blog here):



Here is another kind of street art - an art deco mosaic constructed in 1933 by Napier Waller on the facade of Newspaper House in Collins Street (more art deco photos on the photo blog here, and some art nouveau photos here):



We really liked the cubes in Flinders Street:



There was even a crocheted one!



I had brought a ball of yarn and a hook but didn't do any crocheting. We did visit my favourite shop in Melbourne, Morris and Sons:



I bought some yarn as a souvenir ;-)



Love the warning on the label!!



All in all we did have a good time, but were happy to go home on Sunday (Hugo flew home on the same day with the Queensland team). Robert hopes to go back to Melbourne in December for the ballroom dancing championships!

Quick slippers

Yesterday I whipped this pretty pair of slippers - the nights are getting cold here in sunny Queensland, so they were put on the moment they were finished!



They are called Sunday Ballet Slippers, designed by Ashlea Konecny from HeartHookHome - the pattern can be found here. They are very easy to make and work up quickly - a great pattern for beginners.



Tomorrow my youngest son and I fly to Melbourne to watch his oldest brother compete at the Australian Gymnastics Championships. And to do some sightseeing in Melbourne of course! We all fly back on Sunday. To be continued...

Falbala

My Falbala shawl is finished!



Very happy with it - it goes so well with my purple glasses! ;-)



Just love this pattern - very art deco-ish!





The details:
Purple Falbala Shawl
Pattern: Falbala by Eclat Du Soleil (I left out the borders)
Yarn: Drops Cotton Viscose
Hook: 3.5 mm

Pottery

Pottery is something I have wanted to try for a long time, so when I discovered the Gold Coast Potters Association here in Benowa, I immediately signed up for one of their classes. I've had four lessons now and today I could take my first finished projects home.
I made the leaf in the photo above with a mould made from a Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) leaf that was provided by one of the teachers. Two different glazes were used to colour it. It's 48cm long and 14cm wide (approx.19 x 5.5 inch). I love it!



An old lace doily was used to create the pattern on this tray. The teacher suggested I use this colouring. Doesn't it look great? This one measures 35 x 25cm (approx. 14 x 10 inch).



I have another five lessons to go - I hope I can make a yarn bowl!

Dominic the Dopey Dragon

It's been almost a year now since my mother-in-law taught me to crochet and set me off on this exciting journey. In those 10 months I have made quite a few different items (a blanket, some bags, a t-shirt, a shrug and a shawl, to name but a few) but until recently I wasn't tempted to try any amigurumi. That changed when I saw a picture of Sharon Ojala's dragons - I had to make one of them!



My dragon-loving son (for of course the finished product would be for him) chose the Sleepy Dragon. I found some red and white Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton 8 ply in my stash and set to work.



I had been working on the lacy shawl I showed in the previous posting and found it quite difficult to adjust to crocheting tightly as is necessary for amigurumi. I remade the body of the dragon with a smaller hook because it was so 'holey'. It still is, as you can see, but luckily my son doesn't mind at all, he loves Dominic!



And so do I - I'm very proud of my first ami! Maybe I should have picked an easier project - but I like a challenge and I really enjoyed making this dragon. The pattern is absolutely brilliant, very clear with lots of videos to help you along. And it's free!

I will be making more amis for sure - I've promised to make a whale for my youngest son, and I also want to make a dog (and try to make it look like Barney). To be continued...

New project

After finishing the Market Bag I didn't feel ready to get back to the Lone Star blanket, so have started another new project. This is Falbala, a shawl designed by Eclat Du Soleil. It's fun to crochet and I love the art deco-ish pattern!



I'm using Drops Cotton Viscose for this shawl, which is a beautiful yarn, but rather splitty. The reason to make a purple shawl is because I wanted one to go with my glasses! After wearing contact lenses for more than 30 years I am now back to wearing glasses full-time. The purple frame used to be for my reading glasses and I really liked it, so decided to have my prescription lenses put in. Loving my new look!



We have been living on the Gold Coast for four months now and it's starting to feel like home. My eldest son has once again been selected to represent Queensland at the Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne later this month. This time I am flying down with his youngest brother, who is keen to visit Melbourne for the first time. Looking forward to that trip very much!



As planned my youngest son has taken up ballroom dancing again and last weekend he had his first competition with his new partner. It went very well (a third place, two fifth places and a seventh place) and they both enjoyed it very much. And they looked so handsome together!



Meanwhile my middle son is playing his guitar, helping to run a children's drama class and taking horse riding lessons. He doesn't like being photographed but I think he won't mind if I share this photo here!

Market Bag

Last week I discovered that there is a yarn shop in walking distance of my workplace... Of course I had to check it out!



It's a lovely little shop called Teekays Yarns and as it happens they had a Mother's Day Sale on, so how could I not buy any yarn!



I chose this gorgeous Italian yarn called Geilsk Sommer - it's a mix of cotton, ramie and hemp. I needed a short break from the diamonds, so decided on a quick project: a market bag. I found the pattern on Ravelry, it's called the Carry Me Away Market Bag, designed by Yasmin Gamal.



The bag is crocheted with 2 strands of yarn. I had to go back to the shop for one more ball of mustard and two black ones for the top and the handles.



Very happy with my new bag. I've been wanting for weeks to visit the Farmers Market that is on every Sunday at our local park - this Sunday I will definitely do so!

Adding background to the Lone Star

Here's another update to the state of affairs regarding the Lone Star blanket. I've added the background to one corner now, and this is what it currently looks like: a shooting star!



I'm now up to 190 diamonds: 150 in the star and 40 in the background. Only another 200 or so to go...



I've been working on it (off and on) for two months now and still not getting tired of it. However, I have bought some yarn for my next project:



I decided to not go with my favourite blues for once, but to pick a red/orange/yellow palette. I have an idea about what I want to do, just need to figure out how...

I'll leave you with a pic of our adorable Barney, taken just after he had had a bath:



:-)

Urchins

This morning I hopped on my bike and rode to Surfers Paradise to check out the Urchins.



The Urchins are two large crocheted sculptures, designed by Choi+Shine Architects and made by 80 Australian crocheters. They are part of the Festival 2018 that is currently held at the Gold Coast as part of the 21st Commonwealth Games.



I first heard about the Urchins when a crochet blogger that I follow, Snakewood and Grace, announced on her Facebook page that she had been asked to contribute to this project and shared the process of making parts of the Urchins. They are made of 3mm nylon cord - it's called extreme crochet!





The installation can be viewed in Appel Park in Surfers Paradise until Sunday 15 April.



I was very impressed and can recommend a visit if you are in the area!



Meanwhile my own crochet project, the Lone Star Blanket, is slowly growing:



I am crocheting a lot while watching the gymnastics at the Games - mostly on tv, but I also made two diamonds at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, where oldest son and I watched the men's qualifications and team final on Thursday:



(This was during the break between subdivision 1 and 2 - there was no arm room to crochet when the competition was on!)

Easter

How was your Easter weekend? Mine was perfect - my yarn arrived on Thursday, so I spent a lot of time crocheting diamonds, while listening to an audiobook or watching Netflix (got through series 1 of Victoria over the weekend!)



I made twenty-three background diamonds - only 157 to go! (or more if I want the blanket to be rectangular instad of square...)



It was wonderful to have a break after the hectic first term of the year, settling in our new home. We are very happy here on the Gold Coast but it has been exhausting; new jobs, new schools, new clubs, finding our way around, making new friends. Especially doing all that for the second time in just over a year...

However, we didn't just stay at home and relax - we decided to explore some of the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland and went to Mount Tambourine on Sunday and to Springwood National Park on Monday. There we did the 4k hike to the bottom of the Purling Brook Falls - it was very muddy and slippery after all the rain we've had, but well worth the effort!



You can find some more pics on my photo blog.
My youngest son has taken possession of my old DSLR and brought it along as well. Love this photo my husband took of the two photographers in the family :-)